Shusaku Endo | Criticism

SOURCE: A review of The Final Martyrs, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LXII, No. 13, July 1, 1994, p. 865.

[In the following review, the critic points out the autobiographical nature of the stories in Endo's The Final Martyrs.]

Somber, haunting stories that resonate with compassion, eloquence, and metaphor.

Once again, Endo (Foreign Studies, 1990, etc.) explores the themes for which he is famous: Roman Catholics in Japan, the illness and fear of aging, the pain of divorce, the loneliness of childhood. In this collection of 11 stories written over the last 30 years, autobiography continues to take a front seat: Endo finds inspiration in his own experience with lung disease to address physical suffering; in his parents' loveless relationship to address loss of innocence and compromise; in his own experience with Christianity to address, as the apostate in the almost epic title story, the question of whether or not it is all right to be...